# The Joys Of: Cigar Band Decoupage, Arts and Crafts.



## psygardelic (May 24, 2005)

_The following is a slightly lengthy post detailing various craft ideas for those creative gorillas out there. If you have ever made a cigar related craft in the past then please share it with us here! Don't be shy. If you don't feel like reading the entire post know that I discuss: Cigar Band Decoupaged Furnite, Cigar Box Clock, Cigar Box Lid Wall Hanging, and Cigar Box / Jewelry Box conversion as well as a few other topics. Enjoy! _

I have been working non-stop now that I got this job as a barista at a coffee shop. It has left me little time to post on Club Stogie and even less time to smoke. I am still enjoying the mega-bomb that I recieved one cigar at a time. I smoke maybe once every few days now.. Its a good thing actually because it is allowing me to really savor and appreciate each cigar I smoke as when i smoke more, on my busy schedule, I dont enjoy them as much.

Anyways, because I have little free time anymore I try to make the best of it. I have taken up a few hobbies to try and get my mind off of things. one of them being Poi, or fire dancing, which I am very slowly learning with practice poi and the second not really a hobby but a fun craft, Decoupage. I had bought a bottle of Glossy (rather than Matte) Decoupage Adhesive for my wife from hobby lobby for $4.95. I started by making her a little picture box by cutting out and Deco'ing pictures of us on their. Next I had made my gangster wanna-be stoner friend a "stash box" out of an old ACID - Blondie , cigar box. I took some old issues of cannabis culture and high times, cut out pictures of bud and Deco'ed them to the box.. Its pretty cool looking actually. The Gloss finish gives it a sort of shiney sheen and looks like there is like a plastic coating over the pictures.

Finally I decided to undertake a life long project, and i'm sure this is just the first of many. I've always documented my cigars bands in my make-shift-dossier by taping the bands onto the pages. I use these little plastic sleaves. I got a small stack, about one inch tall, of like 1000 of these little plastic sleaves from a garage sale, unaware of what their actual use was I decided to see if I could fit my cigar bands in them. By folding the edges over just slightly I could fit them nicely into their and position them right in the middle and they were protected and preserved very nicely. I started fashioning my cigar bands to my cowboy hats (i wear them while out "in the field" doing my studies) at the beginning of this year. My first hat simply had about 30 bands taped to each other and circled the base of the hat right where it meets the rim. Later in the year I started using the protective plastic sheaths/sleeves to proudly display a single band in the center of the hat. I would use a safety pin and run it through the back side of the hat so that it just sort of looked like part of the hat. The sleeve was clear enough to make it look sort of like a patch.. ghetto but fun nonetheless.

So back to the point, my life long project. I have hundreds (probably at least over a thousand..) cigar bands filling a few boxes at home still, left over as I didn't really imagine that I would save and document all of them in my make-shift-dossier. I have always wanted cigar themed furniture but most of my older garage sale/thrift store quality furniture is in storage right now. I decided to use this foot stool that is covered with green vinyl (sort of the kind of material that you would see in the booth of a pizza joint). I started by Decoupaging the bands in a single row but eventually got more wild and creative with it. I was going to try and position them based on my ratings for them or if they were habanos (I dont have many habanos bands (maybe 20?) but decided that I wanted this project to last me a life time. I only have about 1/10th of the top covered so far but I am making them overlap and trying to be a little strategic about it so that they look even and sort of 'bleed together'. I'm going to eventually cover the entire surface with the bands that I already have but once that is finished I am going to contribute only my finest cigar bands to it. I eventually want to make at least one other layer to top it off with and I want that layer to only be of really good cigar bands, like habanos and super premiums...

*ENTER DREAM SEQUENCE*
Someday when I get settled down in my own (owned) house I plan on covering an entire wall (via decoupage unless a better alternative exists) in PREMIUM (no seconds biotch) cigar bands.. That would be a freaking awesome smoking lounge/bar wouldn't it? I picture a smoke filled room, loud music, a pool table, Mini-Grand piano, A small bar and all of my friends enjoying premiums looking at the detailed wall that I had spent so much time on...

okay, time to stop fantisizing.
*END DREAM SEQUENCE*

I was considering pasting cigar fliers and cutouts from magazines on the bottom layer but I think it would be more interesting if it was simply all cigar bands. I will have to post a picture of it when i am finished.

Another project that I did recently was make a clock out of a cigar box. I had really hoped to use my Cusano C-10 anny box for a clock because it is so slick looking but decided to hold off untill I have more experience and the right tools. I dug through a lot of different boxes, thought about using an old Drew Estates medusa or egg rectangle shaped box and eventually decided to use a cigar box that I am almost ashamed of mentioning.

Before I discovered Club Stogie and learned of the evils of flavored cigars and the like I had decided to make my one and only order from Finck Cigar Company. I have raved about this company before and made fun of it a lot in the past so here I am admitting that I actually did order from them at one point in time. I ordered a box of 50 "Rum Runner" cigars, very small cigars actually. They had little skulls on them and the box had a pirate theme going with a cool skull on it and skulls on the border. I turned this box into my first cigar box clock.. I know the idea isn't original but I was thrilled to do it.

back when i had my own house I had converted my office into a cigar/liquor themed room by cutting out cigar imagery and making a sort of collage on my wall. A simple but fun little craft I had made then was a wall hanging. I made it by simply removing the lid from an (uhum.. *clearing throat and mumbling next word*) ACID cigar box. I took two hooks that one would use on a picture frame and screwed them into the top, tied a sting on it and "woula!"(sp? how the hell do you spell the expression "woula" as in the presentation of something you take pride in?)

Another simple but fun little craft that I did and started a new one yesterday is converting a cigar box into a jewelry box. I have this green felt fabric that came in a poker set I recieved from walmart (the felt stuff you lay on the table before a game). I cut out a square of the felt and glued it to the bottom of the cigar box, which looks okay, but I would rather use a red fabric that looks royally bitchin'. Next I simply took more of those hooks that I mentioned earlier and screwed a few of them, symetrically, across the top of the lid of the cigar box. This made a little place that you could place your necklaces so that they wouldn't get tangled.

-----------

There are other fun little things that i've done and that you can do with your cigar byproducts but i'm running out of time so I will conclude this lengthy post. be creative, and dont be afraid to be crafty. I wasn't sure if it was "acceptable" for me to be 'Decoupaging" or if I would be considered a freakin' chick by doing so but I gotta tell ya, when that cigar band foot stole gets done its going to kick some serious ass. Someday, when I get really good at such acts like decoupage, I am going to reupholster an old chair with a cigar theme and maybe even possibly a chest to sit in front of the chair and place my ashtray and humidor on.

if you are interested in making a clock from your cigar box, you can get a really simple clock making kit from walmart for about $5.00. They had a couple different sizes, gold and black hands and a few other variables. I simply used a knife on my box because it wasn't made of wood but with a drill and some imagination, you could have yourself a really cool clock.

I mentioned wanting to make a computer case (whatever the hell you call the housing for the motherboard, my memory is shite right now) out of a cigar box, or maybe several, awhile ago. Maybe a humidor would be more appropriate, maybe you could cut the decorated lids from the boxes and build case from the ground up with those.

Please share your cigar craft ideas and projects with us here. Together we could come up with some kick ass stuff. My wife knits and i'm trying to get her to make me a "Stogie Cozzie" maybe something cute to carry my tubed cigars in..

Thats all for now. Sorry I haven't been able to get on as much lately. I still think of you all daily and I haven't forgotten about the 2nd FAHFAN contest or anything, just want to make sure I can get the cigars out right after I recieve them so potential donors and winners heed my words, it will happen.. but in time. Forgive my absense.

Best wishes to all and may your humidors forever overflow with great leaf,
-Dan and Kasey Psygardelic.

======================

ps, to those of you who are aware of my previous post regarding having kidney stones, I eventually passed them all as of late last week. It was the most painfull experience with kidney stones that I ever had. I swear that I had one stuck in my eurethera and slowly make its way out.. I had taken a shit load of my pain medicine because it was a frightening terrible experience so the memories are rather blurry. but its all over now and I am scheduled to go to the eurologist in january.. good times , good times.. :hn


----------



## SDmate (Apr 24, 2005)

See what happens when ya don't post for a week.... it all comes pourin out in 1 post  
glad ya past ya stones, hope ya start feelin better soon mate


----------



## CrazyFool (Oct 2, 2005)

SDmate said:


> See what happens when ya don't post for a week.... it all comes pourin out in 1 post
> glad ya past ya stones, hope ya start feelin better soon mate


glad your okay (well at least 'ish' anyway) i dont wish that on anyone. i just heard from my female banker who had 3 kids and a stone pass say the stone was WORSE! my Lord, i quit on soda.

Cool post though, my brother has a nice collage on a peice of hanging cork, while im still a ninny about my little Cigar Rating journal


----------



## pnoon (Jun 8, 2005)

SDmate said:


> See what happens when ya don't post for a week.... it all comes pourin out in 1 post
> glad ya past ya stones, hope ya start feelin better soon mate


:tpd:


----------



## justinphilly-cl (Sep 7, 2005)

as usual, thanks for a lengthy, informative, and entertaining post!!! glad you passed your stones...


----------



## CIGma_Chi (Jan 26, 2005)

Maybe you can add this one to your collection. 

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showpost.php?p=160103&postcount=346


----------



## Charles (Sep 28, 2005)

Glad you passed your stones, hope that you are feeling better, or at least have the desire to smoke.


----------



## Sancho Fuente (Oct 22, 2005)

It feels so much better once they are out. I drink close to 2 gallons of water a day now to try to keep mine away. Anyway, now I know what I can do with all of those old bands . . . make a cigar band toilet seat. Something to keep your mind off the pain of pissing out a jagged rock.


----------



## Dogwatch Dale-cl (Sep 7, 2005)

CIGma_Chi said:


> Maybe you can add this one to your collection.
> 
> http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showpost.php?p=160103&postcount=346


Excellent work again Jeff (as usual!). I'm sure Dan can find a piece to highlight using your creation as it's central theme.


----------



## CIGma_Chi (Jan 26, 2005)

Dogwatch Dale said:


> Excellent work again Jeff (as usual!). I'm sure Dan can find a piece to highlight using your creation as it's central theme.


Maybe Psy can work up another review for you guys in the meantime


----------



## kenstogie (Jun 14, 2005)

Man can you type 'delic!


----------

